losses
by stolashoots
Summary: After losing a duel, Vector and Alit talk. Warning: minor injuries


Vector hadn't expected losing the duel, but then again, he hadn't expected _another_ organization would try to take over the world via Duel Monsters. Really now, he thinks as he slowly rises to his feet, at this point, it's a bit silly to attempt world domination by using a children's card game when there are so many other methods of doing it.

He winces at the shock of pain in his right ankle. Is it twisted? He puts weight onto it, then immediately aborts the action when his nerves scream at him to stop. Damn, this is going to be irritating, but at least he hadn't died for unexplained reasons as one often does when losing in a Duel Monsters match. A broken ankle isn't that serious of an injury in the great span of things, but it certainly is going to put him out of dueling commission. It's nothing compared to what Don Thousand put him through, however, and he shoves the pain to the back of his mind.

Checking over the rest of him, Vector finds a couple of bruises, sore spots, and cuts from being thrown back after every attack that connected, but nothing of actual note. He slips out his D-Gazer and calls Yuma to no avail, and he's sent straight to the answering machine. He tries Alit next, and the ex-Barian picks up after a handful of rings.

"Vector?" Alit's voice is strained, his breathing heavy, and sirens blare in the background.

"I just lost against that girl wearing the bird mask, and I'm hurt." A few years ago, Vector would have sooner died than admit defeat, but now he's more upset for not being a strong enough to help his, ugh, friends. "Where are you?"

"I'm in that building with that really big maze in the back that Yuma wants to go to. You remember the one?"

"Didn't it collapse?" Vector had been in sight of it during Alit's match with a dog masked man when what looked like an explosion went off on one of the top floors. He'd assumed Alit managed to escape.

Alit laughs awkwardly in answer. "Yeah, about that. I can't really get out."

Vector rubs his eyes. "Stay there, I'll come find you. What floor are you on?'

"The second, right by the stairs. You won't be able to miss me. Have you been able to get in contact with the others?" Alit asks.

Vector begins hobbling out of the room he's in, calculating the quickest path to where Alit is trapped. "No. Yuma isn't picking up. I saw V and Durbe an hour ago, but I don't know where they went. Can you try to call them while I'm getting to you?" Vector reaches the stairs and signs, knowing that climbing the three flights down isn't going to be fun with his injured foot.

"Yeah. Stay safe, okay? Call me if anything comes up."

Vector ends the call and begins the grueling trip. It's painful, and he spends more time leaning against the hand railing, gasping for breath, than actually heading down, but he eventually reaches the first floor. From there, he stumbles out of the building, down a few streets, and reaches his destination. As he suspected, the building has suffered structural collapse, the top two floors sinking in on each other.

Vector finds his way inside by taking a stray rock and bashing it against the locked glass door, shattering it. Another disgusting flight of stairs up, and he finds Alit amongst a pile of rubble, lying on the floor with his D-Gazer in hand.

"So this is why you're still here," Vector says. From the looks of things, a good size chunk of the ceiling fell and landed on him, and even though Alit managed to remove most of it, he still appears fairly battered. "You hurt?" Alit's shirt is red and the building is dark, so he can't see any stains.

"It's not that big of a deal," Alit tells him. "I can't get a hold of Yuma. Gilag and Mizael both lost their duels but are fine. They think Nasch, err, Ryouga, might have won his match and is with Yuma, but there's no way of checking."

Vector kneels down, careful of his ankle and shoves the rubble away to make room for him to sit down beside Alit. "We should probably regroup with the others at Yuma's house," Alit says, watching.

"I hurt my foot," Vector grumbles and lies down next to Alit, shifting to get comfortable on the hard floor. "Can you walk? I can't help you walk."

Alit makes a face. "Of course I can walk. _Should_ I is the real question."

"They'll send a search party to come pick us up once Yuma gets finished kicking those masked freaks' asses." There will be much mocking from the other Barians and Kaito for getting into this situation no doubt, but there's not much else they can do about it.

"Vector," Alit says after a lengthy pause. "I know you don't like talking about emotions, but humor me for a moment, will you?" Vector grunts in acceptance. "Yuma's going to be fine, right? I mean, even without Astral…"

Vector sighs. "Of course he will, Yuma is an unstoppable force. You should know that by now, Alit, considering how often the two of you duel," he chastises. Vector sighs again, then reaches out and takes Alit's hand beside him. He laces their fingers together, rubbing his thumb against the top of Alit's hand. "Just you wait, as soon as he deals with the whole 'world coming to an end thing,' Yuma will find us and try to hug and kiss us and he'll start crying and everything will go back to how it usually is." Vactor can't believe he's reassuring Alit, talk about a low point in his life. Man, these humans are making him go soft.

"Yeah," says Alit, "You're right." Of course Vector's right; there's no way Yuma could lose. Even without the help of Astral, Yuma can defeat anyone.

Vector wiggles again, his shoulders protesting against the solid floor. After spending centuries with wings protruding from his back, the area is still sensitive. He sits up and looks around for something soft to lie on. Without warning, he rolls on top of Alit. Vector bites his lip as more pain shoots up his leg from jostling his ankle.

His new position on Alit's chest is much more comfortable than on the ground, and though Alit looks less than enthused at being used as a mattress, he rolls his eyes and hugs Vector close to him. Vector shifts some more, opting to unzip his jacket before finally relaxing.

They don't speak to each other, preferring to think over their situation, and at some point Vector falls asleep. When he wakes again, he's warm, his face pressed into Alit's neck. While he was sleeping, Alit got his arm under Vector's jacket and shirt, and his callused fingers draw soothing patterns into his lower back.

Vector stretches his arms out but doesn't bother to roll off. "What time is it?"

"Late," Alit says vaguely, pressing a kiss against the top of Vector's head. "Got a call from Durbe a while ago, everyone's safe. Yuma's tired but still standing, so that's good."

"Has he stopped that cult thing from world domination yet?"

"I don't think so."

"What a slacker." Vector slips his D-Gazer out of his pocket and check on it. He flips through the messages, deleting most of them since they're unhelpful. Just as he's about to put it away to save batteries, Vector receives another message. "Oh, it looks Yuma won a duel against their leader. Yippy. We should have bet money on Yuma winning."

"I wonder how many of them Yuma'll try to make friends with," Alit muses. "Since he creates bonds through dueling."

"As long as he doesn't try to date any of them, I don't care. It's bad enough I already have to share him with you…" Vector mumbles against Alit's shoulder.

Alit barks out a laugh. "Oh, poor Vector, stuck spending so much time with the mean, evil Alit. I suppose it was inconsiderate of me to force you to go on dates with me all the time." Alit pats Vector's back and lightens his tone. "Don't worry Vector, it'll take a lot more than you unpleasant personality to get me to leave you."

"Stop talking," Vector grumbles, and Alit can only break out in laughter again. By the time Alit calms down again, Vector can hear footsteps running up the staircase.

"Vector? Alit?" A voice – Yuma's – calls, and then there's a loud thump, a yelp, and silence.

"Did he trip?" Vector wonders aloud and sits up on his elbows, still on top of Alit.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Alit murmurs back.

The footsteps return, less frantic this time, and Yuma soon appears. He's filthy, covered in wat looks like dirt, and Vector spies a few scrapes and cuts on his arms and face. Yuma runs up to them and drops to his knees, reaching out to hug both of them. The angle they're lying at makes it awkward, but that doesn't deter Yuma in the least bit.

"I was so worried about you two when we got separated, and I couldn't get my D-Gazer to contact you…" Yuma complains. He grabs Vector's face and smacks their lips together for a kiss, then ducks down to do the same to Alit.

"Congratulations on the win," Alit says with a smile when Yuma pulls up for air.

"Yeah, it would have sucked if you lost," Vector agrees. Slowly and carefully, Vector gets to his feet, Yuma rising with him for support. "Now, let's get out of here. Yuma, help Alit, will you?" Vector instructs. Yuma does as he asks, helping Alit up. The journey down the stair is just as painful as it was going up for Vector, but now at least he has Yuma describing the final match to distract him.

"So, Yuma," Alit begins once they're out of the building, "Since you saved the world and all, I think this calls for a celebratory date."

"Sure!" Yuma agrees easily.

Vector rolls his eyes. "Right now?"

"Sure," repeats Yuma. "Lets go home and break out the ice cream tub and watch movies. It'll be fun."

They should probably go to the hospital to get patched up, or help out with damage control, but instead of that, they walk to Yuma's house and kick out all of the ex-Barians and Yuma's friends to have an impromptu date.

 **Boy do I love this ship ^^ Please remember to leave a comment~**


End file.
